We start from Hartlebury Common, walking south along its length to cross the Worcester road and continuing to Lincombe Lock, highest on the Severn. The river’s high, but not quite up to the path (which is nevertheless very muddy). We’re following different modes of transport through time – from the river, we walk beside Stourport Basin and along the canal towpath. We leave the canal where the former Severn Valley line from Bewdley to Hartlebury crosses, walking along its trackbed until Wilden Top Road crosses high above the cutting through the sandstone ridge, the northern continuation of the common. The road takes us the short distance back to the car park on the common.

VIC 99, berthed in the river, is a survivor of the fleet of over 100 small steamboats built during the war, based on the Clyde “puffer”. It spent its working life in the Forth, but since 1968 has lived on the Severn. VIC = “Victualling Inshore Craft”